Most year-end lists try to objectively let you know what the best albums of the year are, either in the industry as a whole or within a given genre. But we’re a podcast about how music affects each of us, so our list is more personal (forgive us, Lorde). These albums are ranked by how much we listened to them, what they meant to us, what they meant to the world, and how great we thought they were. If you disagree, that’s probably good. Make your own dang list.

Today we’ve got the very funny Abby Russell (Comedian with the Magnet Theater, Associate Producer for Giant Bomb). She’s the real hero of this episode, so please say so in the comments below. We talk about listening to music between class, living across the street from your high school, and video games as art! We also nerd out about learning how to play St. Vincent songs and how cool Annie Clark is.